Our reading this week is about surprises and how we respond to them. The elderly Zechariah, long resigned to never becoming a father after decades of prayer, is stunned into silence when he learns that Elizabeth is carrying a child. The unwed teenager Mary, hearing she will bear the Christ child, is filled with joy.
I’ve heard many sermons about how God is a God of surprises—about the blessing of the unexpected. But I hate surprises. Many of us learn young that surprises can be bad—really, really bad. We wake up one day, and the world has turned upside down. Life is not what we expected it to be.
Lately, I’ve been waking up with that feeling. I work with immigrant students, and I love them deeply. Every day, I’m shocked by the cruelty my fellow Americans can show to people who did nothing wrong except hope and pray for a better life and take the chance when it finally came.
I wasn’t sure what I had to offer my Highland Baptist family this Advent. I haven’t felt much hope, joy, or peace. Mostly, I’ve felt stunned into silence. Then I remembered a conversation with my student Zeinab in 2018. Our ESL III class was discussing the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“This country is not what I expected it to be,” she said, realizing her family might have fled bloodshed in Iraq only for her or her sister to be killed in an act of American gun violence.
This country is not what my students expected. For too many young people, surprises here are usually bad. And yet, my classroom has always been a place of joy. Even while families quietly make plans for what to do if they’re detained or deported, my room is loud, laughing, audaciously joyful. Defiant, even.
Mary was a teenager, too. Maybe that’s why God chose her. Teenagers can be salty and impulsive, not especially peaceful—but they carry a tremendous capacity for hope and joy. A simple joy, rooted in the here and now. A brave joy.
So this Advent, if you find yourself stunned into silence by a not-so-good surprise, remember: we may not know what tomorrow will bring, but we belong to a community that cares for us. And there is real joy in being together.
Prayer: Creator, too often, life is not what we expect it to be. Right now, our country is not what we expected it to be. Help us remember, in this season of waiting, when hope and peace seem in short supply and so many wake each day not in anticipation, but dread, help us to remember that there is joy to be found in the love we share as a community. Help us to be fully present in each moment so that we can appreciate the simple joy of being together, and let that joy give us strength and courage. Amen.
Kate Albrecht has been a member of Highland since 2019. She teaches multilingual learners for Jefferson County Public Schools, and she and her son, Alex, who is in the sixth grade, live near Churchill Downs with their dog and three cats. Kate is a member of HBC’s Immigration team and the Transformers Bible study.